Related papers: Iron K Line Diagnostics in Active Galactic Nuclei
We review what we have learnt with ASCA from studying the Fe-K lines in AGN and describe a program to deconvolve the narrow, non-disk components of the lines with Chandra. This is necessary to derive the correct profiles of the broad,…
Recent observations with Chandra and XMM-Newton, aided by broad-band spectral coverage from RXTE, have revealed skewed relativistic iron emission lines in stellar-mass Galactic black hole systems. Such systems are excellent laboratories for…
X-ray observations of several active galactic nuclei show prominent iron K-shell fluorescence lines that are sculpted due to special and general relativistic effects. These observations are important because they probe the space-time…
Chandra and XMM observations are showing that the Fe-K emission lines in type 1 AGN are composite, in general consisting of a narrow and a broad component. We review the latest Chandra HETG results and compare the line profiles with those…
Iron K-alpha lines are key diagnostics of the central regions of AGN. Their profiles indicate that they are formed deep in the potential well of the central black hole, where extreme broadening and red shift occur. The profiles are most…
In active galactic nuclei (AGN), fluorescent Fe K$\alpha$ (iron) line emission is generally interpreted as originating from obscuring material around a supermassive black hole (SMBH) on the scale of a few parsecs (pc). However, recent…
(abridged) With most physicists and astrophysicists in agreement that black holes do indeed exist, the focus of astrophysical black hole research has shifted to the detailed properties of these systems. Nature has provided us with an…
The relativistically broadened Fe K$\alpha$ line, originating from the accretion disc in a vicinity of a super massive black hole, is observed in only less than 50\% of type 1 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). In this study we investigate could…
Future X-ray instrumentation is expected to allow us to significantly improve the constraints derivedfrom the Fe K lines in AGN, such as the black-hole angular momentum (spin) and the inclination angle of the putative accretion disk. We…
We present evidence for changes in the strength and profile of the iron K-alpha line in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), based on X-ray observations with ASCA. There is a clear decrease in the strength of the line with increasing luminosity.…
We analyze X-ray spectra of heavily obscured (N_H > 10^{24} cm^{-2}) active galaxies obtained with Chandra, concentrating on the iron K alpha fluorescence line. We measure very large equivalent widths in most cases, up to 5 keV in the most…
In this contribution, I briefly review recent progress in detecting and measuring the properties of relativistic iron lines observed in stellar-mass black hole systems, and the aspects of these lines that are most relevant to studies of…
Observations of the fluorescent Fe K-alpha emission line from the inner accretion flows of stellar mass black holes in X-ray binaries and supermassive black holes in Active Galactic Nuclei have become an important tool to study the…
Relativistic X-ray emission lines from the inner accretion disk around black holes are reviewed. Recent observations with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission-Newton, and Suzaku are revealing these lines to be good…
The fluorescent iron K$\alpha$ emission line profile provides an excellent probe of the innermost regions of active galactic nuclei. Fe XXV and Fe XXVI in diffuse plasma above the accretion disc can affect the X-ray spectrum by iron…
We present evidence for widespread relativistic effects in the central regions of active galactic nuclei. In a sample of 18 Seyfert 1 galaxies observed by \asca, 14 show an iron K$\alpha$ line which is is resolved, with mean width…
The Fe K_\alpha fluorescent line at 6.4 keV is a powerful probe of the space-time metric in the vicinity of accreting compact objects. We investigated here how some alternative theories of gravity, namely Scalar tensor Theories, that invoke…
Here we present an overview of some of the most significant observational and theoretical studies of the broad Fe K{\alpha} spectral line, which is believed to originate from the innermost regions of relativistic accretion disks around…
In this chapter we discuss the X-ray radiation from relativistic accretion disks around supermassive black holes, supposed to exist in the centers of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Our focus is on the X-ray radiation, especially in the Fe…
Using XRISM/Resolve $439 \, \rm ks$ time-averaged spectra of the well-known Seyfert-1.5 active galactic nucleus (AGN) in NGC 3783, we investigate the nature of the Fe K$\alpha$ emission line at 6.4 keV, the strongest and most common X-ray…